(Published in USA Today in July, 2016)
Sixty years ago this month Syd Nathan's King Records released a two-sided instrumental record by Bill Doggett. Nathan was leery of releasing a two-sided disc as he considered it would hurt jukebox plays.
Oh boy,was he wrong!
"Honky Tonk Parts 1 &2' not only became one of the biggest hits of 1956, it went on to sell by the million, and according to Big Al Pavlow's 'The R&B Book' -the definitive story of the R&B music business - it became the second biggest R &B record of the decade.
The tune, recorded in June of 1956, rose to number one on the R&B charts and stayed there for two months. It hit number two on the pop charts, sold over four million copies -
probably many more by now- and became one of the most covered tunes of the era, spawning several dozen versions by artists as varied as The Beach Boys to Bill Haley, from Bill Black to Ray Anthony, the Ventures to Jerry McCain. The Doggett version, recorded on the fly in
supposedly one take, outstrips them all in sheer verve, feeling and groove.
I really can't recall when it was that I first became aware of Bill Doggett while growing up in the UK. Probably at a party, or lying under the bedclothes at night listening to Radio Luxemburg,
trying to hear past the static, mad beeps and yowls of my old Philips tube radio. His King
records were issued on Parlophone over there, a very old label that was part of the EMI empire. Most people today probably remember it as the Beatles label. I do recall the first Doggett tune
that I owned. It was 'High Heels ' and was track three on side two of a marvelous King Records compilation 'All-Star Rock and Roll Revue' (King LP 395-513). This was the first American-pressed LP I ever owned. Around 1959 or 1960 a friend and I would regularly cycle the twelve miles from our hometown of Winchester to Southampton, a busy port on the southern coast. Our destination would be the St. Mary's district, which was where all the junk stores were located. There was all manner of delights to be savored there amongst the mothballed piles of clothes, dusty crockery, busted toasters and old bicycles.

Records! 78s,45s and LPs. And every now and then an American one! We surmised that homecoming sailors plying the Atlantic route between Southampton and New York brought these records back from the States, and in true and proper sailor tradition, sold them for booze money. So that is where I found the LP - other great cuts on it
were things by Lucky Millinder with Wynonie Harris, The Midnighters, Earl Bostic, Little Willie John, The Swallows and others.
As Jon Hartley Fox tells the story in 'King of the Queen City - The Story of King Records',
"Honky Tonk' came about on a gig when in between tunes, guitarist Billy Butler played a figure that the rest of the band fell in behind. In another story, Shep Shepherd told Rusty Zinn that
Doggett was late for the recording session and the band worked it up while waiting for him. Whichever tale is the true one, all four had their names on the tune as co-composers, and as Shepherd related to Rusty:''I'm still living in the house that 'Honky Tonk' bought'.

A medium rocking shuffle propelled by Doggett's insistently pulsing organ and drummer Shep Shepherd's in-the-pocket beat, the tune became a showcase for Butler's gently stinging guitar and Clifford Scott's iconic tenor playing. On the record, the players can be heard shouting
encouragement as the excitement builds. Interestingly, in the very democratic musical milieu of the times, Doggett doesn't take a solo. Solo-wise, the record is split between Butler and Scott, but the result was a hundred percent team effort. If one had to choose just one recording that truly characterized the term 'Rhythm and Blues' it would be this record.
It is simply a blues record with impeccable rhythm.
Try not to dance to it.
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